This Jealousy
by sofia.estrella
Summary: Ron/Hermione songfic. Song is "Jealousy" by Darren Criss.


_I hate where I'm at  
Acting crazy like that_

Ron crossed his arms grumpily. _Dances are stupid_, he thought to himself. The Great Hall was ridiculously festive with all the Christmas trees and wreaths… Stupid Tri-Wizard Tournament. He looked through the crowd of clumsily dancing students. There were Harry and Parvati, pivoting stiffly in a circle. Parvati seemed to be leading him—and rather forcefully at that. Ron snorted and took another gulp of butterbeer. He could really do with something stronger—especially considering what he saw next.

Hermione and Krum passed by Ron's table, dancing and smiling stupidly at each other. His fists clenched involuntarily as he felt a gag-reflex in the back of his throat. But then they were gone, back into the crowd. The last thing Ron saw was Krum's hands on Hermione's waist as he whisked her away.

Padma was sitting next to Ron at the table. She kept crossing and re-crossing her legs and sighing impatiently. It was quite annoying.

"Well, are we going to dance or not?" she said irritably.

Ron shrugged, not turning his head to look at her. "You can dance if you want."

She muttered something under her breath, and began bouncing her leg, the bells around her ankle jingling. The sound was giving Ron a headache. He caught a glimpse of Hermione. She was laughing merrily, presumably at something that Krum had said. Her face was flushed vibrantly, her hair spilling out of its up-do, and her eyes bright.

Still Padma was kicking her foot, those goddamn bells louder than ever.

"Stop it, will you?" he snapped. She froze for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed, and she began bouncing the other leg.

_I know that I've been wrong  
It's something I've been working on_

Ron saw Harry and Parvati approaching. Harry looked relieved and Parvati looked almost as moody as Padma. Harry asked Ron how things were going as he opened up a butterbeer. Ron was about to give a sarcastic answer when he spotted Hermione and Krum nearby. Was she trying to irk him? It was certainly working… Stupid Hermione, thinking she can show off her newly shrunken teeth and her shiny hair… messing with his head…

Parvati had sat down next to Harry, and assumed an identical position to her sister. If they weren't wearing different color robes, Ron wouldn't be able to tell them apart. The table was in silence, and everyone was carefully avoiding each other's eyes.

After a minute or so, some boy from Beauxbatons asked Parvati to dance with him. As she stood up, she asked Harry if he would mind.

He looked up at her blankly, having been watching Cho dance with Cedric. She snapped at him and left. Harry didn't seem to care much.

_Oh and I can't stand what I'm feeling  
It's just like poison in my __veins_

_I know that I'm speaking  
But I don't know what I'm saying_

Hermione came over, alone, and sat down beside Harry. Ron bristled, and eyed her warily. She was slightly out of breath, and fanned herself. Harry greeted her. Ron didn't say anything. She quickly explained that Krum was getting her a drink… but she had called him 'Viktor.'

"_Viktor_?" Ron repeated, snarling slightly. "Hasn't he asked you to call him _Vicky_ yet?"*

Hermione blinked, clearly startled. Two or three exchanges later and Ron was practically yelling at her, not aware that he had stood up from the table. Harry winced as Hermione also jumped to her feet, caught in the middle of it. Padma looked on in mild amusement. From there it only escalated into honest-to-goodness shouting that drew some attention from the other students. It ended when Hermione stormed off, and Ron fell back into his chair, processing for the first time what had been said between them. He dropped his head to the table and groaned. Padma had left to go dance with someone else, leaving Harry and Ron alone at the table.

"Did I really accuse her of fraternizing with the enemy?" he muttered.

Harry nodded solemnly. "Something to that effect."

Suddenly, there was a very unwelcome voice behind them asking where "Herm-own-ninny" was. Ron whirled around before Harry could answer.

"No idea. Lost her, have you?"* he snapped.

Krum's face fell and he walked away. Ron glared at the back of his head, wishing a thousand painful deaths upon him, and not quite understanding why.

_Cause every time that I feel like I've figured it out  
I can't seem to figure it in  
It's got nothing to do with me  
It's not even you, you see  
It's part of my __chemistry__  
It's this jealousy_

Nowhere was safe anymore. Least of all, the Gryffindor common room. It seemed that Hermione learned this almost nightly when she came back from the library. No matter how long she stayed there, it was always the same. What was she supposed to do, sleep in the library? There was no way around it. But she just couldn't see Ron and Lavender together without wanting to punch a hole through a wall—or through Ron's head. Or Lavender's. Or both.

_It's got nothing to do with me  
It's not even you, you see_

They really didn't have to be so conspicuous about it. Didn't either of them have the decency to find a private broom cupboard somewhere? But then again this was Ron and Lavender. 'Decent' was not an appropriate word to describe either of them.

Hermione took a deep, quavering breath. She had to get around them. They wouldn't even notice her; they were too busy snogging and groping each other. Right next to the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

She stared walking toward them—no, toward the _stairs_… they just happened to be there—but she lost all her resolve as she saw Lavender running her hands through Ron's hair. Hermione whipped out her wand and threw out the first hex she could think of. She heard their yelps of surprise and quite possibly pain, but she wasn't there to see effects.

The tears were falling from her eyes before she'd completely got back out of the common room, through the portrait hole.

"Hermione!" Ron called after her, sounding surprised, confused and a little angry. She slammed the portrait firmly behind her, allowing the tears to flow in earnest.

_It's part of my chemistry  
This demon is killing me_

Ron clutched at his face, which was stinging painfully, but it didn't feel swollen.

"Won-Won, my face hurts," Lavender whined. "Look what that _Granger_ did to me!"

She took her hands away from her nose—it had enlarged noticeably, and was an angry red color. Ron almost laughed. At least her affliction would give him a break from the incessant snogging.

He looked at the portrait hole, out of which Hermione had just disappeared. What was up with her? He frowned. Just over the past few weeks, ever since he had gotten together with Lavender, she had hexed him more times than he could count. She was always glaring at him, often refused to speak to him and was extremely moody.

With a start, he realized something. _Ever since he had gotten together with Lavender… _Did that mean…? No, she couldn't be… could she?

Ron pondered this as Lavender continued to pout and whine, hanging off his shoulder. Merlin, she was annoying sometimes.

"Lav, I forgot something in the library. I'll be back soon."

She frowned. "Come back soon? I'll miss you…" She kissed him on the cheek and then whined that it hurt her nose. He turned away and rolled his eyes.

_And, oh Christ, it's filling me  
It's this jealousy_

Hermione seemed to be spending a lot of time in empty classrooms by herself. She had conjured the birds again, the little yellow birds, and they fluttered around her head like a halo, chirping cheerfully. Their happiness didn't make her feel much better. In fact, it kind of made her want to puke.

She vanished the annoying little birds, and the room was silent. But only for a moment. The door opened, and Hermione leapt to her feet. It was Ron. She glowered at him, expecting to see Lavender come through the door a moment later, dangling on his arm. But he was alone.

"Oh, hey, Hermione," he said awkwardly, scratching at his head and face.

The effects of the stinging spell weren't visible. His face was a little red—but it always was—and his lips were swollen, but that was probably from overuse and had nothing to do with the hex. She folded her arms, and stared aloofly at the ceiling. She hoped he couldn't tell she'd been crying.

"I was looking for you," Ron said. "What are you doing in here?"

"Just wanted to be alone," Hermione snapped. "Do you have a problem with that?"

He bit his lip and leaned against the wall. "So, are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay. I'd be better if you'd just leave me alone."

"Well, _sorry_, Hermione, but when you hex me and my girlfriend, I kind of want to know why."

She snorted but didn't respond in any other way.

"Come on, why are you being so bitchy lately?"

Hermione looked Ron in the eye, and he cowered back a little under her glare. "Excuse me if I don't want to see you two eating each other's faces everywhere I look! It's kind of revolting."

"You wouldn't care if it was anyone else," Ron challenged.

"Yes, I would!" she cried.

"Really? I doubt that."

"Why do you 'doubt that'?"

"Just admit that you're jealous!"

Ron's words hung in the air between them, resounding deeply with Hermione. But she was far too prideful to admit to anything tonight.

"Jealous of _Lavender_?" she shouted in well-feigned exasperation. "Please! Jealous of that ditzy, blond slut?"

"You are!" Ron insisted. Hermione couldn't help but notice how he neglected to defend his girlfriend's honor. "That's why you haven't been talking to me! That's why you hexed me! You're _jealous_!"

Ron seemed like he was having an epiphany as he waved his arms wildly. Hermione took a couple determined steps toward him—he flinched—only to roughly brush past him out the door. She began running down the hall, not that she had to. Ron wasn't following her. She kept running anyway and didn't stop as she bolted through the common room—Harry called out to her in concern—or when she ran into Ginny on the stairs. She only stopped when the door had been closed and locked behind her. Then she fell onto the bed, burying her face in the cold pillow.

Ron's words were ringing in her ears. There was only one plausible explanation for why they bothered her so much: She knew that they were true.

_Oh, and I just can't believe  
In this jealousy,  
This jealousy for you_

* * *

**A/N: the song is "Jealousy" by Darren Criss. It's a great song and I realized how perfect it was for R/Hr. So I wrote this: my first songfic! (Not the first I posted, but the first I wrote) Rate and Review please! **

*** = direct quotes from the "Goblet of Fire" by JK Rowling. Both are from chapter 23, pages 421 and 423. I don't own the characters either. **


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